{"id":4927,"date":"2017-05-07T15:40:47","date_gmt":"2017-05-07T15:40:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.communitymediaresearch.it\/?p=4927"},"modified":"2026-01-19T18:48:04","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T17:48:04","slug":"sindacati-a-nordest-lopinione-di-popolazione-e-lavoratori","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.community.it\/en\/2017\/05\/07\/sindacati-a-nordest-lopinione-di-popolazione-e-lavoratori\/","title":{"rendered":"Trade unions in the North-East, the opinion of the population and workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The world of work is increasingly a universe of professional galaxies. The introduction of new technologies and the unravelling of the fourth industrial revolution, if they certainly make some jobs obsolete, at the same time open horizons for the emergence of new professions, with different skills from the previous ones. As in a sort of 'big bang', we are witnessing - almost daily - an expansion of the working universe and the emergence of new activities. The consequences of such phenomena affect a multitude of areas and open up new challenges in the sphere of rights and duties, companies and workers, protection and representation. Here, representation. It has become a complicated business, for all organised forms of interests, let us be clear: from business associations to professional and institutional ones, not to mention parties. But workers' organisations, of all of them, have a long history behind them and they too know aimpasse<\/em>. Which stems from a few orders of reasons. The first lies in the progressive articulation of work. If previously the 'working class' of the factory constituted the identity (and cultural) element, the obligatory reference from the contractual point of view, today workers are 'outside the class'. Workers represent a minority and, even within them, there is a mix of figures.<\/p>\n

Other trades and professions have grown. Work is becoming diffuse in places and forms, with asynchronous hours and an increasing difficulty in distinguishing manual from intellectual work. Trade unions struggle to reach and represent them. Hence, confederality and the traditional solidarism between workers becomes more complicated and complex to manage as interests multiply. Thus specific organisations that protect particular groups of workers come into being, proliferating and diluting representation. Then there is a second element to consider: representation is achieved with at least one interlocutor (business, political). But if even these are in a weakened condition, the role of interest bearer comes into mutual difficulty. The executives in the past (first Berlusconi, then Renzi) have sought disintermediation with regard to 'intermediate bodies', bypassing them and pursuing a direct relationship with the worlds of reference. The results of such action, after a period of confrontation, ended with a retraction. In reality, more to the demerit of politics than to the merit of the trade unions, which were often anchored in defensive positions. But within these processes, another dimension contributes to complicating the task of representation: changes in labour cultures. The greater weight attributed to subjectivity and labour relations, identification with the company, the idea of a job understood as a path to professional growth, the appreciation of merit: these are all aspects that have become widely majority in workers' orientations, but which trade union organisations struggle to understand and, above all, to translate concretely into protections, into bargaining. Last but not least, the strength of representation feeds on the reputation and esteem that an organisation enjoys outside its own reference audience. This is precisely the subject of Community Media Research's research: how have the opinions of the population and workers towards trade union organisations changed over time? First of all, we observe a divergence between what is expressed by the general population, on the one hand, and workers, on the other, on the role of trade unions in Italy. In the collective imagination, the weight assigned to the trade union in its function of protecting and contributing to the country's development increases. As many as 39.1% among northeasterners believe that things would be worse in the country if trade unions did not exist (it was 34.2% in 2015). There is no doubt that the opposition to the Jobs Act, the battle over vouchers and the referendum activism have paid off in terms of visibility, especially among the population of Friuli Venezia Giulia and Trentino Alto Adige. Vice versa, those who would gladly do without them are 34.9 per cent among the respondents, but it was 23.3 per cent in 2015 in the North East. Thus, on average there is a polarisation in the respondents' orientations that divides those in favour and those against the union almost equally. However, if in Friuli Venezia Giulia and Trentino Alto Adige the negative assessment decreases, in Veneto it tends to increase.<\/p>\n

The result is not similar, however, if we focus our attention on workers, i.e. the target group of trade unions. In the late 1990s, the majority among employees (54.5% in 1998) assigned a positive role. Gradually, however, this parterre decreased to 43.3% today. On the other hand, those who believe that things would be better in Italy without trade unions (13.1% in 1998) rose to 30.5%, while the area of indifference (26.2%, it was 32.4% in 1998) towards these organisations decreased. These results are the result of the opinion that trade unions are unable to protect the interests of workers (51.9%, it was 45.1% in 2015). The reasons for this inability remain essentially the same over time. On the one hand, trade unions are perceived to be on a par with parties (39.8%), on the other hand, they are not believed to be able to understand the current changes in the world of work (39.6%).<\/p>\n

Such outcomes confirm, once again, the need for a revisiting, above all cultural, of labour representation. The experiences, on closer inspection, are not lacking. The contractual 'renewal' of Federmeccanica and that of CNA signed together with CGIL-CISL-UIL are proof of how it is possible to innovate starting from new (conditional) visions of labour. They testify that - albeit with difficulty - a trade union (of workers, as well as entrepreneurs) can re-interpret its role. Because in the age of galaxies of labour, there is a need for someone who can offer a common universe.<\/p>\n